The champions entered the contest on the back of a three-game winless run in league play, but that poor stretch ended thanks to Claudio Pizarro's second- half goal.

Bayern was held off the scoreboard until the 75th minute when the veteran striker took a pass from Mario Gotze and fired home a left-footed strike.

It proved to be all the visitors would need, but Mario Mandzukic tacked on a late insurance goal to see the Bavarians collect all three points and put the side in good stead heading into its Champions League meeting with Real Madrid on Wednesday.

Braunshweig drops its second straight match to stay at the bottom of the table on 25 points.

Borussia Dortmund maintained its grasp of second place in the top flight by getting a 4-2 home win over Mainz on Saturday.

Milos Jojic and Shinji Okazaki exchanged goals inside the opening 14 minutes before Robert Lewandowski put the hosts in front by the 18-minute mark. Okazaki leveled the score once more in the 53rd minute, but Lukasz Piszczek responded three minutes later with what turned out to be Dortmund's winner. Marco Reus made sure of the victory by converting a penalty for the hosts in the 79th minute.

Dortmund has won four straight league matches to improve to 64 points, bringing the club six points clear of third-place Schalke.

Freiburg pulled further away from the relegation zone on Saturday by getting an emphatic 4-2 home win over Monchengladbach.

After Patrick Herrmann and Admir Mehmedi exchanged goals, Freburg was handed a slight edge Granit Xhaka's dismissal in the 68th minute. The hosts went on to cruise for the remainder of the match as Oliver Sorg, Vladimir Darida and Mehmedi scored to secure the victory. Monchengladbach could only managed a consolation goal through Havard Nordtveit in the 88th minute.

Werder Bremen overturned an early deficit to get a 3-1 win over Hoffenheim on Saturday. Kevin Volland had given visiting Hoffenheim an early lead, but strikes from Philipp Bargfrede, Santiago Garcia and Nils Petersen saw Bremen collect the victory.

Also on Saturday, Augsburg was held to a 0-0 home draw by Hertha Berlin while Wolfsburg stormed to a 3-1 win at Hamburg.